You know that nagging feeling that your marketing mix isn’t quite working, but no one wants to talk about it because “that’s the way we’ve always done it”? Yeah. This episode is for you.
Herdify’s Tom Ridges sat down with marketing strategist and general voice of reason, John James, to unpack one very big issue: channel selection bias. Why are we investing in the wrong things? Why are we still leaning on dodgy attribution reports? And most importantly, how do we fix it?
This one’s part strategy, part therapy session. Let’s go.
https://youtu.be/_gtIOBC-sGs
The problem: We’re not choosing channels based on what works
It turns out, most media planning isn’t driven by insight or data. It’s driven by bias.
As John puts it:
“You can pretty much predict which channels a brand will pick based on what the team’s staffed for, what’s easy to report on, and what’s fashionable right now.”
And it’s not even malicious. We all just... do what’s familiar. Got a social media exec on the team? You’re probably doing social. Got a boss who likes dashboards? You’re probably spending on channels with short-term metrics. The result? We’re defaulting to comfort over impact.
Apple broke the model and that’s a good thing
Remember Apple’s App Tracking Transparency update? That 2021 moment did more than mess with your paid social reporting it blew up the illusion that digital always gives you clean results.
“If you're relying on digital attribution from the same platform you're spending on… that's like asking Facebook to mark its own homework.”
It’s murky. It’s biased. And it’s not helping you understand what actually drives revenue.
The fix: Test smarter, not harder
John’s advice? Get back to basics. Use holdout geo testing. Test one thing at a time. Run experiments like it’s 2010. You’ll get clearer answers, and platforms can’t squirm out of them.
And stop being scared of ‘offline’ media.
“The smartest businesses layer digital with offline, community and partnership tactics. They test them in real-world environments. That’s where the real growth is.”
Your customers are humans. Don’t forget that.
The big kicker? We like to pretend our buyers are logical. But they’re not. They’re human.
People don’t choose CRMs by comparing feature tables. They ask their mates. They pick what their team already knows. Just like you probably did when you signed up for your last tool.
“I bought Asana because three mates told me to. That was the extent of my research.”
Want to win more customers? Be in the places they talk. Focus on creating memorable signals that work with how the brain makes decisions, not against it.
Big takeaway: Stop following the marketing herd. Start studying the real one.
If there’s one thing to take away from this chat, it’s this: just because everyone’s doing it, doesn’t mean it’s working.
Whether it’s putting out 10 campaigns a month no one sees, or spending on channels your competitors dominate it’s time to think differently.
Marketers and planners, you’re the hero here. Your job is to stop wasting budget and start making moves that actually shift the needle. Our job? Help you figure out where your audience actually is, and what’s worth your time.
